USA, Indiana: Three More Marriage Equality Lawsuits Filed

Three federal lawsuits were filed Friday against Indiana’s same-sex marriage ban, boosting the number of legal challenges to the ban’s constitutionality to at least five. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit Friday on behalf of five gay couples and three other plaintiffs in federal court in Indianapolis. That suit contends that Indiana’s gay marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment and asks a judge to declare it unconstitutional…

Another suit was filed Friday by four lesbian couples who were married in states that allow same-sex marriages. Three of those couples have spouses who are police officers, while the spouse of the fourth couple is a retired firefighter. Their suit seeks a permanent injunction ordering the state to recognize the couples’ marriages as valid and lawful. It also seeks that the state’s pension fund for police officers and firefighters extend the same pension and death benefits to same-sex spouses as opposite-sex spouses. A third federal lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of a lesbian couple from Indiana who were married in Iowa and another woman who was also married in that state to her same-sex partner, but is now in the midst of a divorce.

All five lawsuits will likely be consolidated into one. But what a different picture it would be if we were simultaneously suing and trying to fight a constitutional ban on the ballot this year!